I think that the Government should not, must not deny
such silly rumours. The thing to do is to give them to the
press and to ridicule, make a laughing-stock of those who
believe these rumours and circulate them. This is
blackmail on the part of the Urquharts and the Curzons: such
rumours are designed to hamper agreement at present. This
is patent blackmail.

Notes

[1]This was written on G. V. Chicherin’s letter, setting out the
news dispatch by the American correspondent to the effect that
foreign capitalists were unwilling to take out concessions in Soviet
Russia because of the stubborn rumours that the Soviet
Government would shortly return to foreign businessmen full title in
their old factories. Chicherin proposed a denial of these rumours.

On the document is also Lenin’s note: “Why did you send me
The Times of 12.IX?”